diff --git a/Lib/_strptime.py b/Lib/_strptime.py
index ce8525b7169..3fb56020e29 100644
--- a/Lib/_strptime.py
+++ b/Lib/_strptime.py
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ def strptime(data_string, format="%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y"):
         _cache_lock.release()
     found = format_regex.match(data_string)
     if not found:
-        raise ValueError("time data did not match format:  data=%s  fmt=%s" %
+        raise ValueError("time data %r does not match format %r" %
                          (data_string, format))
     if len(data_string) != found.end():
         raise ValueError("unconverted data remains: %s" %
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index c1a3a6cc3c4..b7c69c184fb 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@ Core and builtins
 Library
 -------
 
+- Made the error message for time.strptime when the data data and format do
+  match be more clear.
+
 - Fix a bug in traceback.format_exception_only() that led to an error
   being raised when print_exc() was called without an exception set.
   In version 2.4, this printed "None", restored that behavior.